Took the PMP exam yesterday, passed first try all AT's!
I am definitely surprised that I was able to pull that off. I started doing the PrepCast Lessons back in May of last year. First thing I noticed was how much a didn't know in relation to terms, my company doesn't have a lot of formal project management processes. I have a very busy schedule and my goal was to be ready to test by the end of last year.... that didn't happen. Any way, I finished the final test in the PrepCast in December and moved onto study/review mode. I gave myself 2 months to study and use the simulator. I cannot say I was as focused on studying as I could have been, and I was quite worried as test day approached. I took 4 full practice tests and scored between 75-78%. In between each I would re-read the PMBOK on the knowledge areas I scored lowest on. Anyway, I went and took the exam and did much better than expected.
Lessons learned for me, focus on what process group the question is asking about, and know what documents are available to you at that point. i.e. during initiating, parts of the project management plan haven't been created yet. Know the concept behind the earned value equations, I didn't memorize anything. I made sure I understood the concepts across the board. The simulator was priceless since nothing else give you practice/knowledge on how to answer the situational type questions they ask.
